STUDENT EVALUATIONS OF TEACHERS

The “StudentsFirst” report hit the newsstands with a bang. There was no soft peddling and certainly no grade inflation—no state was given an “A” and many got an “F”. That’s good.  The education systems state by state were evaluated based on how well they match the platform created by StudentsFirst, an educational organization. The centerpiece of this organization’s platform was testing of student performance on standardized tests. I think there is another test that is over looked and that is student teacher evaluations. Like all evaluations, they are not easy to evaluate. This blog post is written to defend the way I think.

Student evaluations is a two way street. First is the way student evaluate their teachers and second, and perhaps the most telling, is the way teachers evaluate student evaluations—it may sound like double talk but it isn’t. As an ex-professor, my colleagues fell into two obvious categories in respect to their judgment of their student evaluations of them. Those who thought student teacher evaluations were good and those who thought such evaluation were bad.  Among those who thought such evaluations were good were those whose students really thought they learned in their classes. However, and more importantly, were those teachers who learned from the evaluations. That is how new teachers hone their skills. Sometimes, it took the guidance of an administrator or more experienced teacher to make that evaluation but the teachers’ response is critical. If StudentFirst had looked at how teachers respond to their evaluations, they could easily identify the good teachers.

Among the teachers who think the evaluations are good, were the popular teachers; this group includes teachers who the school board and academic awards committees often honored as teacher of the year. Often the very thing that makes them popular in the eyes of a student is what makes them ineffective as teachers: high grades, easy tests, dismissal from class early, treats, etc.  The challenges for the StudentsFirst organization is to evaluate both effectiveness and popularity at the same time and try to discern the teachers who are rated high by student  in both categories.  The school administration must discard those teacher who rate high on in popularity but are ineffective; however beware, the public (parents) will object to condemning a popular teacher even if that teacher is incompetent.

For me, and exceptionally important point about student evaluations of teachers, is that it gets at the “hard to test for area” of talent. A dyslexic student may excel in art, story telling, and music for example and appreciate a teacher that recognizes this as opposed to hating a teacher who fails them because they cannot spell. The same is true for students with athletic propensities. An administrator will never know about this aspect of teaching but the student will and should have a voice.

Finally, although I was not an administrator, I listened to many professors condemn their students—often with invectives—for judging their performance as inferior, especially those who thought they were good teachers. My response was simple; you should not be a professor.